The present invention relates to a transfer apparatus suitable for transferring a mount on which a wafer is set in a semiconductor manufacturing and inspection system.
In a conventional apparatus, for instance, disclosed in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 2-163927, pieces of a synthetic resin of low friction coefficient or ball bearings are disposed at fixed intervals at the bottom of and on right and left sides of a transfer line to form guides for the transfer line, so that an object to be transferred or conveyed, which is set on the conveyance line, can be transferred along the guides with the aid of a transfer drive rod for pushing or pulling the object.
Such a conventional apparatus has unavoidably suffered from problems that sliding surfaces of the synthetic resin pieces are worn out or the bearings serving as discontinuous supports are brought into sliding or discontinuous contact with the transferred object, and that the guide surfaces brought into contact with the transferred object generate and disperse foreign matters due to abrasion by the transferred object, which foreign matters will adhere to the transferred object and portions in the vicinity of the transfer line. Further, since increment of the transferring speed makes the above problems more serious, the speed cannot be increased above a fixed speed. In addition, in case that the transferring distance is large, it becomes necessary not only to thicken the transfer drive rod for enhancing its rigidity but also to make the rod as well as a driving unit therefor longer than the transferring distance, with the result that the transfer driver rod portion is made to protrude greatly out of the apparatus, thereby requiring a large installation space.